'Twas Turner Got the Beast

Turner Broacasting has snagged the network premiere rights to NBC Universal's King Kong for TBS and TNT.

The Peter Jackson film (Lord of the Rings) has so far brought in about $215 million domestically and over $500 million worldwide.

The Turner window begins in 2008. As part of the deal, Turner is also licensing the network debuts for NBC Universal's Doom; Two for the Money; and The Ice Harvest, and a second window for Prime.

Turner already owns the rights to the original, which its Turner Classic Movies aired last fall to get draft the December debut of the film's second remake.

No connection we know of, but it has been a day of trading between Turner parent Time Warner and NBC Universal.
The companies also announced Tuesday that NBC Universal would now be selling the ad time in its syndicated magazine, Access Hollywood. Those sales had been farmed out to Warner Bros. since before NBC got an ad sales unit via its merger with Universal last year.